A process which has been predominantly used in recent years to manufacture patterns with extremely fine and complex shapes, e.g., letters for timepieces or ornamental parts, comprises forming a resist film on an area other than the pattern-forming area of a metallic plate surface to form conductive portions along the shapes of the patterns on the metallic plate surface, depositing metal on the conductive portions by means of electroforming to form electroformed patterns, temporarily transferring the electroformed patterns to a support such as a film with an adhesive to retain the patterns on the support, and again transferring the electroformed patterns to an adherend such as a timepiece display plate with an adhesive simultaneously with separating the patterns from the support.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 16989/1984 (i.e., Japanese Patent Publication No. 18674/1988) discloses a process for manufacturing letters by means of electroforming which comprises forming a resist on a metallic plate, subjecting the metallic plate with the resist to electroforming, separating the electroformed product from the resist and the metallic plate by the use of a tape with a weak adhesive or other means, and applying an adhesive onto the separated surface of the electroformed product, wherein a disposable electroformed product provided in order to prevent excessive electroforming at the outer peripheral ends of the letters is used, prior to disposal, as a mask when the adhesive is applied to the letters.
In this process, however, the disposable electroformed product for use as a mask must be formed in a large area, and this results in increase of costs such as costs for electroforming materials and electric power and requirement of a long period of time for the electroforming.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 107496/1991 (i.e., Japanese Patent Publication No. 43988/1992) discloses a process for manufacturing electroformed patterns which comprises forming electroformed patterns and an electroformed line surrounding the electroformed patterns on a surface of a metallic plate, adhering a sheet coated with a weak adhesive to the metallic plate with the adhesive, peeling the sheet from metallic plate so as to separate the electroformed patterns and the electroformed line from the metallic plate, removing the electroformed line, covering other area than the electroformed pattern area with a mask having openings slightly larger than the electroformed patterns, and applying an adhesive to the electroformed patterns.
In this process, however, the adhesive (firmly bonding adhesive) is applied to the electroformed patterns after removal of the electroformed line, and therefore a large amount of the adhesive is applied to the peripheries of the electroformed patterns. As a result, the electroformed patterns are difficultly separated, or the adhesive is protruded out from the electroformed patterns after the patterns are adhered to an adherend, showing bad appearance. Further, in this process, pinhole-like small electroformed products are sometimes formed on area other than the electroformed patterns and electroformed lines, and the appearance of the adherend is spoiled by the small electroformed products.